Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027066 (myoclonus)
 4,275 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Four patients with brainstem lesions presented with intractable hiccup and mild to moderate neurological signs. Two of the patients had been initially diagnosed as having a psychogenic cause for their hiccup. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated brainstem infarction in one case, tuberculoma at the junction of the medulla oblongata and the cervical spinal cord in two, and a vermian tuberculoma compressing the brainstem in one. The brainstem infarct and one of the medullary tuberculoma were not detected on high resolution enhanced computed tomography. The 3 patients with CNS tuberculoma were free of hiccup 1-5 months after antituberculous chemotherapy. It is proposed that hiccup is not an abnormal reflex, but a myoclonus generated by repetitive activity of the "inspiratory solitary nucleus" due to release of higher nervous system inhibitory/-regulatory control. The neuroanatomical network and the mechanisms underlying the formation of intractable hiccup are outlined. The value of MRI in the initial diagnosis and follow-up of patients with intractable hiccup due to brainstem lesions is emphasised.
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PMID:Intractable hiccup induced by brainstem lesion. 188 May 31

Hiccoughs (singultus) is a habitual physiological phenomenon, the persistence of which might indicate neurological and extraneurological multiple lesions. Its activation involves starting up numerous central and peripheral mechanisms which have yet to be clearly determined. Hiccoughs results from an intermittent myoclonus of the diaphragm, reflex in origin, with unknown authentic cause or physiological significance. It has been suggested that, more than just an abnormal reflex, it could be a type of myoclonus brought on by repeated activity of the 'solitary inspiratory nucleus', by releasing control of the inhibiting-activating upper nervous system activity. We present the case of a patient with uncontrollable hiccoughs lasting over six years as a result of paramedial bilateral thalamic ischaemia (rostral occlusion syndrome of the basilar artery type 1) of cardioembolic origin (auricular fibrillation) secondary to hyperthyroidism.
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PMID:[Untreatable hiccup as un unusual sign in a rostral occlusion syndrome of the basilar artery]. 874 97